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A Texas federal court on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit brought by 117 hospital employees who challenged their employer’s vaccination demand.
In the written decision of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Judge Lynn N. Hughes said lead plaintiff Jennifer Bridges, a nurse, and 116 other employees at Houston Methodist Hospital who challenged this requirement, do not have a case.
Staff attorney Jared Woodville responded in a statement Saturday, “This is just one battle in a larger war to protect the rights of employees to be free from being forced to participate in a vaccine trial as a condition of employment.”
He said they would appeal to the US Supreme Court “if necessary”.
On Tuesday, hospital officials said they had suspended 178 employees who had refused to be vaccinated.
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Hughes took up the plaintiffs’ arguments one by one. Regarding the due process vaccination requirement, she wrote, “Texas does not recognize this exception for employment at will.”
On their argument that this requirement would force workers to break the law: “Receiving a COVID-19 vaccination is not an illegal act, nor does it entail criminal penalties.”
“she [Bridges] They refuse to accept a vaccination which, in the hospital’s opinion, would make it safer for workers and patients in Methodist care,” Hughes wrote.
In their claim that they were subjected to coercion: “This is not coercion. Methodist is trying to do her job of saving lives without giving them the COVID-19 virus. It is a choice made to keep staff, patients and their families safe.”
On their claim that they are required to take an “unapproved” drug: “Federal law authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide medicinal products in interstate commerce intended for emergency use.”
At times, Hughes appears to mock plaintiffs, saying, for example, that their complaint was written “in press release style.”
She said prosecutors “misunderstood” the law and “misrepresented the facts” of vaccination, including that the requirement amounted to mandatory medical experimentation because Covid-19 vaccines had emergency clearance from the Food and Drug Administration but not full approval.
Hughes also draws comparison to forced medical experiments in Nazi Germany.
“Equating the requirement for injections with medical experiments in concentration camps is reprehensible,” she wrote.
“We can now put this behind us and continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation,” said Dr. Mark Baum, president and CEO of Houston Methodist, in a statement Saturday night.
“The prosecutors will take nothing” from the hospital, Hughes concluded.
Dennis Romero
Joe Stadley and Austin Mullen contributed.
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